Gov't Uses AI to Analyze Social Media of U.S. Citizens [Content Made Simple]

Issue #311: ByteDance issues, AI terms, and more.

TOP OF THE WEEK

Homeland Security Uses AI Tool to Analyze Social Media of U.S. Citizens and Refugees

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Quote:

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is using an invasive, AI-powered monitoring tool to screen travelers, including U.S. citizens, refugees, and people seeking asylum, which can in some cases link their social media posts to their Social Security number and location data, according to an internal CBP document obtained by Motherboard.

The news provides much more detail on how CBP deploys a tool sold widely across the U.S. government. Called Babel X, the system lets a user input a piece of information about a target—their name, email address, or telephone number—and receive a bevy of data in return, according to the document.

Commentary:

Anyone getting concerned about privacy yet?

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THE TRIVIA QUESTION

Which state in the United States bears the motto, “The Crossroads of America”?

Answer at the bottom.

HITTING THE LINKS

Link #1: Ex-ByteDance Executive Accuses Company of ‘Lawlessness’

Good good good good good.

A former executive at ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, has accused the technology giant of a “culture of lawlessness,” including stealing content from rival platforms Snapchat and Instagram in its early years, and called the company a “useful propaganda tool for the Chinese Communist Party.”

Link #2: An AI glossary: the words and terms to know about the booming industry

This is helpful to bookmark!

The artificial intelligence (AI) boom has brought with it a cornucopia of jargon — from "generative AI" to "synthetic data" — that can be hard to parse. And as hard as it is to really understand what AI is (see our explainer for that) having a working knowledge of AI terms can help make sense of this technology. 

Link #3: OpenAI’s Sam Altman Urges A.I. Regulation in Senate Hearing

The leader of OpenAI wants to regulate AI. Makes sense. What company wouldn’t want to negotiate the terms of their entire industry?

The tone of congressional hearings featuring tech industry executives in recent years can best be described as antagonistic. Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and other tech luminaries have all been dressed down on Capitol Hill by lawmakers upset with their companies.

But on Tuesday, Sam Altman, the chief executive of the San Francisco start-up OpenAI, testified before members of a Senate subcommittee and largely agreed with them on the need to regulate the increasingly powerful A.I. technology being created inside his company and others like Google and Microsoft.

THE FUNNY PART

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Trivia Answer: Indiana